Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is from my friend Ittichai and his family. I first tried these in February 2001 and they were amazing! Don’t skip the chilling step… it’s well-worth it.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, at room temperature (no substitutions!)

1/2 C creamy peanut butter (do not use crunchy peanut butter because the cookies will be too crumbly) – for best result use Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter (discard the oil on top before measuring)

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/2 C light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 t baking soda

3/4 t salt

1 t vanilla

1-1/4 C all-purpose flour

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can use chocolate chunks, Hershey’s mini kisses, etc…. I used half regular and half Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips the last time I made these – wow!]

Add the egg and vanilla; mix until blended, about 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.

Mix in the flour and baking soda; blend.

Fold in the chips.

Chill, covered, at least 2 hours up to overnight (don’t skip this step!).

Shape the chilled dough into 2-ounce balls (slightly bigger than a golf ball). Flatten each ball slightly. They should look like hockey pucks — only smaller and fatter.

At this stage, the dough can be transferred to a Zip-Loc bag and frozen. It keeps for about a month in the freezer.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. (This is very important. The cookies will spread out too thin if baked on a greased surface.) Bake about 12 minutes for chilled dough or 14-20 minutes for frozen dough, depending on your oven. The cookies should puff up a bit, set around the edges and very pale golden (and crackly) on top. The center should still look a little underbaked. If the tops are golden brown, the cookies are overbaked and won’t be as chewy and gooey in the center as they should.

Take the cookies out of the oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack, parchment paper and all. Let cool about 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are firm enough to be removed from the paper. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week or a month in the freezer. They’re best when warm (or right out of the freezer!).